Wednesday, November 22, 2017

A simple lovely day at home preparing all our dishes for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Today, the girls and I have prepared dressing, sweet potato crunch, avocado corn salad, and a pumpkin pies. Our daughter and her family from the South has came in which makes this Thanksgiving even sweeter.

I love how (in the winter) the sun shines through our bedroom windows into the kitchen.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Friday, October 27, 2017

This month we celebrated our 13th gotcha day with our daughter Doodle (nickname).

This was our first trip to China! By the way I lost 15 pounds on this trip, we could not get used to the food! We had some cultural shock going on. 😉

On our first day there we climbed the Great Wall of China, or attempted. The footage on our climb up the wall was hilarious; we were about to die! The steps were uneven; one step was 2 inches high and the next step was 2 feet tall. So, after an 22 hour flight, our guide picked us up so we could climbed the Great Wall. Yay!

The next morning Doodle was placed in my arms, a hungry frightened little girl who cried,
and kicked her legs when given to me. She had never seen an American and we spoke in a language she didn't understand. Of course we learned some Chinese to help her understand us a little. That very morning before she met us she had traveled 6 long hours over a bumpy terrain. Realizing that
mainly why she was crying the poor little thing was hungry.

Once I met her needs "food" she began to bond.
This was taken right after they handed her to me.

In a few days Doodle became very attached to us,

she cried if anyone else even tried to hold her.
We are so humbled that God would allow
us to adopt this precious little girl.
She is our daughter!

We visited a village out in the country in a very poor farm area.

We walked through a poor housing area with open sewage in front of each home.

Our guide brought us here to see a rice field.

In this photo were walking out to a rice field. Y'all I wished I could of bring everyone of these children home with me. All of them are so precious, gathering as close as possible to be near us. They kept touching my auburn hair, I am sure they hadn't seen that color before. Speaking in Chinese to each other about it, I could only imagine what they were saying. Funny, I am sure. While everyone else was going out to see the rice. I wanted to stay and be with the children. I never did
make it out to the rice field.

My husband play a game with them, by rolling up a $5.00 Chinese dollar in his hand (worth 50 cents, a day wages for them). They had to guess which hand it was in, as soon as one of them won it, they ran as fast as the could and gave it to their parents. Even tho we could not speak their language, they figure out the game quickly. To me this was one of the best highlight of our trip.

We saw many great places, and stayed in five stars hotels, but after 14 days in China

we were ready to come home. I was one very tired mama, but our daughter was worth it all.

Happy Gotcha Month sweet baby girl, we love you with all our hearts!!

Thank you for walking down memory lane with us.
As always I would love to hear from you.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Slow down my life, let me enjoy the beautiful of fall with its golden leaves,

leaves of red and orange. Nature walks to the creek to watch the

falling leaves drifting away in the rushing waters.

Lovely October, I love the things you bring with you.

Hello Friends,

Today was beautiful with its warm sun, blue skies, and slightly cool breeze. This Saturday was our first Saturday home in a long while. Life for us has been so busy, it's time to say no to the busyness once again. I love my slow days at home and they seem to be less lately.

This Saturday morning we took a short drive to a farmhouse diner for pancakes, eggs, biscuits and gravy, hot coffee which is farmhouse cooking at its best. Returning back to our farmhouse I mowed three of our five acres, pulled weeds for most of my day. I left my favorite chore for last, that was the washing of my front porch. Y'all, It was good to be home, I can't tell you how wonderful it felt to just to stay home for the entire day. Anybody?

Washing away the spider webs who thought they had found a winter home. I was glad to be out here on the front porch. I am usually a regular on my porch. When you are to busy to set on the front porch, you are just to busy. Anybody?

I have slowly been adding fall to our porch, maybe a few fall pillows,